Germans retreat from €100m bill for renovation of Goebbels lovenest

David Crossland, Berlin

January 12 2019, 12:01am, The Time

A luxury bungalow used by Joseph Goebbels as a venue to seduce film actresses could be demolished because it is costing too much to maintain.

The building, north of Berlin, was where Hitler’s propaganda chief wrote his “total war” speech. The bill for its renovation is estimated at more than €100 million, with basic maintenance costs of about €1 million a year.

A Berlin city councillor from the ruling Social Democrats said that no serious investors had come forward in three bidding rounds since unification in 1990 and that the vast and remote complex, which also includes a crumbling communist-era college, was of limited historical interest.

Goebbels with his wife, Magda, three of their six children, and the Führer in the 1930s

The fate of the building feeds into an anguished national debate over how Germany should handle its Nazi heritage and whether tearing down symbols of the regime amounts to erasing part of its fascist history.

Sven Heinemann, who is on the supervisory board of the state property agency that owns the site near Bogensee, said the city wanted to avoid the bungalow becoming a shrine for neo-Nazis and that it made little sense to spend the huge sum on its renovation. He said he hoped that a final decision on the site could be taken this year after an expert report.

“It was a private villa where Goebbels seduced some actresses,” Mr Heinemann said. “If the place were deemed that historically significant, efforts would have been made to explain its history by now.”

Historians, however, expressed dismay at the prospect of a demolition. “This is total nonsense. You can’t discard history by tearing down buildings,” said Wieland Giebel, a publisher who designed an exhibition on Hitler in Berlin. “The whole complex represents Germany’s two dictatorships and it would be perfectly suited as a conference centre for young people, especially at a time like this with nationalism on the rise across Europe.”

He added: “The bungalow can serve as a museum to show how the Nazi regime drove people to war while the top brass gorged themselves and screwed around. It could attract 200,000 visitors a year.”

Lída Baarová, a Czech actress, had a two-year affair with Goebbels

Goebbels started visiting Bogensee, which is 25 miles from Berlin, in 1936, when the capital’s government gifted him the lake and a small chalet on the shore for his 39th birthday. Deciding that he needed a more prestigious retreat, he ordered the construction of the bungalow, which was completed in 1939. A statue of a nude Aryan couple embracing stands by the entrance. The building has 30 rooms and floor-to-ceiling terrace windows that could be automatically lowered into the ground. Hitler and Hermann Goering had similar windows in their retreats.

Among the women he entertained at Bogensee was the Czech actress Lída Baarová. Their affair lasted for two years and ended only after Hitler intervened at the request of Goebbels’s wife, Magda, not least to protect their image as a model Nazi family.

“He was besotted with her,” the historian Ralf Georg Reuth said. “When the relationship ended he lamented in his diary that ‘my youth is over’. Bogensee was . . . closely associated with Baarová.”

The building was used as a hospital by the Allies after the war and the Soviets then handed it over to the youth arm of the East German Communist Party. It became the nucleus of a huge college to instil socialist ideology into party officials from around the world.

Richard A. Grenell, Ambassador of the United States of America, today takes a lot of time – three hours – for the documentary „Hitler – how could it happen“. This subject is important to him. He was well informed about many questions of German history and asked intensively. Grenell was on Gleis 17 a few weeks ago and repeatedly takes a stand on questions of Jewish life on Twitter. Grenell comes together with his partner Matt Lashey to the Berlin Story Bunker. Elio Adler from the Werteinitiative made this visit possible.

Richard A Grenell early this morning on Twitter. It is reminiscent of the Jewish stars, of the exclusion of people, here in the form of a work of art. If you follow the Twitter messages on Grenell’s private account, you’ll learn a lot about his commitment.

Enno Lenze leads through the documentation. The civilian Anhalter Bunker, now the Berlin Story Bunker, is located exactly a thousand metres from the former Führerbunker. The streets can be recognized. Berlin is a desert of ruins at the end of National Socialism.

To promote an awareness of religious freedom and take decisive steps to combat anti-Semitism – Richard A Grenell in the section dealing with how Hitler becomes a Nazi.

Anyone could have known. Grenell in front of the blackboard with the detailed report about Hitler in the New York Times. The American journalist Cyril Brown already reported prophetic clarity on November 21, 1922. He knew exactly what was going on, was well informed down to the last detail, and gave a well-founded, correct assessment of the Nazis. Cyril Brown emphasized Hitler’s abilities as a speaker and organizer, the use of armed SA racket troops modelled on Italian fascists, and brutal anti-Semitism, to which he cites various voices. Brown has the Nazis in his sights and continues to report on the danger.

In front of a blackboard about Reichskristallnacht. Grenell: Respect the inherit dignity of each uniqui individual.

Grenell recalls that he visited Gleis (track) 17 at Grunewald station on 9 November 2018. 50,000 German Jews were deported from Berlin in the Holocaust – also from Anhalter Bahnhof.

Enno Lenze, Richard A. Grenell, Elio Adler: The support of US Ambassador Richard Grenell for Jewish life in Germany is a source of encouragement.

Grenell: „I am very happy to see this photo here. We would like to support the church in which Dietrich Bonhoefer preached, this important German pastor and theologian.“

Matt Lashey, Richard A. Grenell, Enno Lenze and Elio Adler in front of the rubble heap of history.

Grenell: „Anyone who has seen this documentation will never forget where racism, nationalism and anti-Semitism end. Very well done. You did a great job. The documentary really answers everything about National Socialism. No question remains unanswered.“

From the guestbook of the Berlin Story Bunker.

Richard Grenell directly after the visit on Twitter.

Richard A. Grenell, Enno Lenze, Matt Lashey, Wieland Giebel

Elio Adler documents the visit on Twitter.

https://www.berlinstory.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Logo_BS_162web.jpg00Wieland Giebelhttps://www.berlinstory.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Logo_BS_162web.jpgWieland Giebel2019-01-12 23:51:292019-01-16 15:42:41Richard A. Grenell, US Ambassador, visits the documentation "Hitler – how could it happen" in the Berlin Story Bunker

Then we spent one day in Berlin and we spent almost the entire day (a solid 4 hours) in this exhibit, Hitler: How Could it Happen, at the Berlin Story Bunker Museum. A real bunker where 11,000 Germans took shelter during the final days of WWII. They said there were 5 people per square meter, standing up, for days on end. People committed suicide in the bathrooms.

The exhibit was extensive and very well researched. It was sobering. It was upsetting. I highly recommend it if you have plans to visit Germany.

It’s easy to look at WWII and see it as one big tragedy. I think it’s so important to remember that it took Hitler years (well over a decade) to rise to power and put his plans into place. At one point his followers were in the hundreds, then the thousands, then enough to allow for the near extermination of an entire people.

We all have the opportunity to learn from history. And when leaders lie, and make another group of people the scapegoat to your problems, and pander to your fears, and gaslight you over, and over, and over, THAT is what leads to these catastrophic tragedies. It doesn’t happen over night. It happens slowly.

Keep your head on straight and separate fact from propaganda. Don’t be complicit.

Berlin Story:
Dear Dani,
thank you for being with us in the bunker and watching the documentation in so much detail. For me, who worked on it, it is a great joy that so many young people from so many countries come and show that they are part of the struggle against humiliation, racism and nationalism.

We are quite a lot! And I hope that together we are active enough to oppose any new form of these criminal systems.

https://www.berlinstory.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Logo_BS_162web.jpg00Wieland Giebelhttps://www.berlinstory.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Logo_BS_162web.jpgWieland Giebel2019-01-08 18:49:332019-01-16 15:59:56The exhibit was extensive and very well researched

What visitors are saying – current comments from the guestbook of the documentary „Hitler –how could it happen?“

Keith J
Cardiff, United Kingdom: „If you only visit one museum in Berlin, make it this one.
The exhibition ‘Hitler – How could it happen’ tells Hitler’s story from birth to death. The audio guide leads you from room to room and is a compelling history of the rise of the Nazis and their eventual downfall.

The story is also told in some harrowing pictures and explanations on wall panels in each of the 30+ rooms. It is all extremely well researched and presented in a logical sequence including all of the historical contexts. You could easily be here for hours but it is worth every minute of your time.“

Matt L.
First rate museum of an uncomfortable topic
Amazing museum – exceptionally laid out and full of detailed information. Fantastically helpful staff and the audio guide is great too – and free if you have a flyer. Well worth a visit – even my history hating family seemed to come away having learned something- even if they didn’t want to.

Internet, Garcia: „The staff were friendly (one of the nicest staff I have encountered in Berlin) and the bunker collection was impressive!“

Internet: „It looks as if the façade hasn’t been renovated for a long time“ – From another evaluation of the bunker …